A variety of documents such as checks, bill stubs, bond coupons, and money orders are presented in various transactions in which data is obtained from the document to enable the transaction to proceed. For example, in a transaction of purchase and sale by a consumer, the consumer may present a check in payment of the amount due. A vendor may wish to convert the check at point of sale, and if so, data must be obtained from the check in order to complete the transaction. Alternatively, a customer who wishes to pay an amount due to a vendor pursuant to an invoice (or bill) typically presents a bill stub (i.e., a detachable portion of the invoice designed to be returned with payment) to the vendor or the vendor's agent. The vendor, or the vendor's agent, needs to obtain data from the bill stub in order to complete the transaction.
In each of these examples, the vendor or his agent needs to obtain data from the document at point of presentment. Typically, the point of presentment is a retail context, and the consumer waits while the transaction is completed. The consumer also expects to be provided with confirmation of completion of the transaction immediately upon completion, at the point of presentment. The confirmation of completion is provided in different forms, but generally involves a receipt and/or a mark made on the document.
Known devices for obtaining data from documents suffer from a number of defects. For example, the “footprint” of a device for obtaining data from a document (i.e., the space on the vendor's counter occupied by the device) should be as small as possible. However, known devices still have relatively large footprints. Also, misfeeding of documents, and jamming, is a recurring problem in known data-obtaining devices. As another example, known devices can also permit a misread document to be processed in some circumstances, with the result that the vendor is then subsequently obligated to deal with the lack of document data.
Sometimes it is desirable or necessary to obtain information from both a front face of a document and a back face thereof, or to stamp or print information thereon. For example, in accordance with certain United States legislation, images of a check are, taken together, considered to be equivalent (i.e., for many purposes) to the original document, provided that certain requirements are met. In particular, the legislation requires that the images of the check include images of both the front face and the back face of the check.
In the prior art, processing the document to obtain information from both faces thereof is known. For example, a prior art device includes two scanners positioned to capture images of the front face and the back face respectively as the document is moved past the scanners. However, this approach has the disadvantage that scanners are relatively expensive. Also, a device which includes two scanners would need to have a sufficiently long, straight portion of a document path to accommodate the two scanners. Such a device would therefore have a relatively large footprint.
Alternatively, the document could be sent twice through a device with only one scanner, i.e., once inverted. However, this method is somewhat time-consuming, and vulnerable to operator error.
There is therefore a need for an apparatus and a method for presenting each of a first face and a second face of a document to a processing element to facilitate processing thereby which overcomes or mitigates one or more of the disadvantages of the prior art.